Eurotrip Part 2: Germany and Austria

May 10, 2014

I was inspired to be excited about Germany through Steph who traveled there for her honeymoon and loved it. I knew that I wanted to try schnitzel (which I did 3 times) and experience some of the WWII history, but otherwise I was just up for going with the flow.

We stayed in 2 different cities in Germany – St. Goar which was a smaller town along the Rhine Valley and the big city of Munich. St. Goar is known for its wine so we did wine tasting in a cellar from the 1700s. We also met with a group of German boys that were touring with their band so we invited them into the lobby of our hotel to play for us. It felt very authentically German and a great last-minute addition to our time there.

The thing about doing such a quick trip in so many places is that our schedule is jam packed. Munich is the one city that I didn’t get to wander through on my own time like in the other countries. But I chose not to because the optional activities they gave us sounded like too much fun to pass up. We did a bike tour of Munich which was great because we were able to see so much in just a few hours. I would definitely look into doing a bike tour of a new city in the future.

We also went to a mini Oktoberfest which is basically a big fair with rides and large mugs of beer. There must have been thousands of people there dancing on tables and eating large trays of schnitzel. I went exploring with Paul from Ottawa and picked up Bratwurst, currywurst, and big pretzels along the way. The ladies at the canteens were asking us questions and we just kept nodding because we had no idea what they were saying (as usual) so we figured we would just accept whatever food they gave us.

Schnitzel

St. Goar

Complete with the world's largest cuckoo clock (hahaha)

Birks

Rhine Valley!

Learning about beer steins

My roomies <3

Canada, South Africa, UK

3 girls who are first-language English who can't understand what each other are saying ;)

German food (it was weird... and gross haha)

Wine tasting in a cellar from the 1700s

Castle on a hill? Might as well try to hike up to it...

From the top! <3

Rhine River at night as seen from the castle

Back of the bus crew

Met a German band...

...and invited them in

Bike tour group

Little rub for good health

The building behind me has chunks of the pillars taken out by bombing during WWII

2nd biggest beer garden in the world - holds 1000s of people

Surfing

At Oktoberfest!

So much beer

Schnitzel

Typical party bus dancing

Clubbing in Munich might have been my favourite time for us all together as a group. Shannel’s cousin is living in Munich so he got 26 of us in VIP to a club where we hung out on the balcony above the dance floor with bottle service. It didn’t take too long for us to make our way downstairs though to continue our streak of dancing the night away.

We got our first glimpse of the alps while driving into Austria. My favourite country for natural scenery was between here and Switzerland. We decided to take the scenic route and stop at every beautiful place which took half a day but was so worth it. We stayed in a charming town and we had an absolute blast partying that night. Everyone was up dancing and I learned a South African dance.

But the real highlight here is paragliding. I was so nervous on our way up the mountain I could have been sick, but once we jumped out of the van and met our tandem pilot guys, I was nothing but excited. My guy strapped me in and set me up and before I knew it, we were running off a cliff into the sky. The first half was head-spinning, beautiful landscapes on a surprisingly quiet and peaceful ride and then I get the question “Do you like rollercoasters?” in a thick Austrian accent. “Yes” I said, hesitantly, and away we went doing flips and twists in the air. I couldn’t help but laugh. And scream.